Stephanie is Young Human Rights Reporter Runner Up

Year 12 student, Stephanie Gabbatt, has been named runner up in
the Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year competition in her age
group.

Amnesty International held the awards ceremony for the finalists
in their Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year competition at
their Human Rights Action Centre in London, as part of the Amnesty
International Media Awards. This event was the culmination of a
competition launched at the start of the year - the brief was to
produce an article no longer than 500 words highlighting a Human
Rights abuse. The competition was judged by a panel of senior
figures from Amnesty and journalists from The Guardian newspaper.

Prior to the Amnesty event, the Girls' Division had held an
internal competition of which three entries were chosen to go
forward to Amnesty for judging. There were three thousand entries
overall from UK schools, and Stephanie's entry on human trafficking
was chosen first to be in the final ten and then in the final
three! This meant that Stephanie, her History teacher Mrs Birch,
and her parents, all received an invitation to the ceremony in
London.

The morning of the ceremony involved a workshop where Stephanie
and the other finalists got a taste of broadcast journalism as they
interviewed one of the Amnesty staff, a nerve-racking but exciting
opportunity. In the afternoon came the ceremony, a glitzy affair
hosted by Ellie Crisell, a BBC news reporter perhaps best known for
her work on Newsround. Out of the thousands of entries submitted to
the competition, in the end Stephanie was voted runner up in the
Sixth Form category - an amazing achievement!

Stephanie said: "I am thrilled to have been chosen as runner up
in the competition! I never thought I would do so well. I feel
honoured to have been given the opportunity to tell the tragic
story of the child slaves of Guinea-Bissau."

Teacher Mrs Birch said: "I am delighted that Stephanie was
chosen as runner up for the award of Young Human Rights Reporter of
the Year. It is vital that young people have an awareness of modern
world issues and this Amnesty International competition has given
an excellent opportunity for them to research and write about Human
Rights violations around the world. Stephanie chose to highlight
the tragedy of children trafficked in Guinea-Bissau, Africa which
is an extremely important yet little known issue. I hope that her
article will help to raise awareness of their plight."

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Stephanie has been named runner up in the Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year competition in her age group

She attended a glitzy award ceremony after being chosen from thousands of entries